Earnings Labs

MGM Resorts International (MGM)

Q1 2024 Earnings Call· Wed, May 1, 2024

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the MGM Resorts International First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Joining the call for the company today are Bill Hornbuckle, Chief Executive Officer and President; Corey Sanders, Chief Operating Officer; Jonathan Halkyard, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer; Kenneth Feng, Executive Director and President of MGM China Holdings, Hubert Wang, COO and President of MGM China Holdings; and Andrew Chapman, Director of Investor Relations. [Operator Instructions]. Please also note today's event is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the floor over to Andrew Chapman.

Andrew Chapman

Analyst

Good afternoon, and welcome to the MGM Resorts International First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. This call is being broadcast live on the Internet at investors.mgmresorts.com, and we've also furnished our press release on Form 8-K to the SEC. On this call, we will make forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provisions of the Federal Securities Laws. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated in these statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements is contained in today's press release and in our periodic filings with the SEC. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update these segments as a result of new information or otherwise. During the call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures when talking about our performance. You can find the reconciliation to GAAP financial measures in our press release and investor presentation, which are available on our website. Finally, this presentation is being recorded. I will now turn it over to Jonathan Halkyard.

Jonathan Halkyard

Analyst

Thanks, Andrew, and good afternoon, and thank you, everyone, for joining our call. We've decided to change our approach to these calls in the new year to give you a more focused recap of our results with additional color and commentary around our plans for the future. With that in mind, I'll start the call with a discussion of the quarter and our growth algorithm and then pass it over to Bill for his comments. As you saw from our press release, we delivered another record quarter across our company's consolidated businesses, generating record net revenues of $4.4 billion, up 13% from last year, net income of $217 million and adjusted EBITDAR of over $1.2 billion. During the quarter, cash provided by operating activities was $549 million and free cash flow was $377 million. This includes MGM China's $215 million in cash flow from operating activities and $15 million in capital expenditures. In Las Vegas, we achieved 4% net revenue growth supported by strong ADRs, which were up 7% year-over-year. Our luxury resort offerings on the Strip served as a distinct competitive advantage, driving top line growth up 5% during the quarter. Looking ahead to the rest of the year, rate is pacing ahead of prior year for each of the remaining three quarters and group rooms on the books are up year-over-year. In the regions, it's no surprise that our businesses were broadly impacted by poor winter weather in January. That said, we experienced a quick recovery in February and acceleration into March. This also will be the last quarter where we need to adjust for same-store results as Gold Strike closed in February of last year. In Macau, we lapped what was really the start of the recovery last year and achieved another record with net revenues up…

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

Thanks, Jonathan, and good afternoon and good evening, everybody. I am the color commentary that Jonathan spoke to in his opening comment. And what I want to do and what I hope to do in the future on these, just go through some top line thoughts as we think about the business and reiterate things that I think are important, obviously, in what happened in the quarter, but more importantly, from a go-forward perspective. Obviously, when we use the word record first quarter and if you look at and think about recent reporting, we're pretty excited and pretty pleased with that. It speaks to our diversity of our business and our four key pillars: Las Vegas, our regional properties, Macau, and we believe, ultimately, our digital business. We're obviously very excited and pleased by what's happened in China. Our EBITDA is up almost 80%, and it's 140% over 2019 levels. So it speaks to that market. I think what we've been able to accomplish. In Las Vegas, our strength continues, particularly at the high end we make roughly 75% to 80% of our adjusted property EBITDAR. The idea of a luxury campus and being focused on the epicenter of activity here has paid off, and we feel will continue to. And Marriott is off to a great start. We've booked approximately 75% over our expectations. And to date, we've booked over 140,000 room nights and the most surprising thing to date has been the group business. The activity case in that segment was a little unexpected. They do know a lot of folks that we didn't know, and we're quite pleased by that. And again, as I always start these, a kudos to our team, our Net Promoter Scores have never been higher. We're holding these scores on margins that…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today comes from Joe Greff from JPMorgan.

Joseph Greff

Analyst

Good afternoon, everybody. Bill, the early experience with Marriott and bookings there positive. Obviously, Tony Capuano mentioned that this morning on Marriott's earnings conference call. I was hoping you could just talk a little bit about what you're seeing so far. I know it's early in terms of out-of-room spend with these bookings compared to maybe either the bookings they're displacing or with just MGM, and this is more of a specific Las Vegas stripe question. And then further to this, is it helping more on the high end? Is it potentially serving as a buffer on the low end? You obviously referenced low-end fatigue in your prepared comments?

Jonathan Halkyard

Analyst

Yes, Joe, it's Jonathan. I'll offer a couple of observations. First, as you noted in the [ premise ] of the question, it is early. I mean, we're off to a great start with over 130,000 rooms booked. We've actualized over 50,000 of those so far. What we're seeing now is a higher premium then we had figured when we were going into this deal, breaks down between rate and the on-property spend. But between the two of those, right now, it's around $150 higher than the rooms that we believe are being displaced by this occupancy. About 100 or so of that is on rate and about $50 premium on on-property spend. So that's all with the caveats around it being early, but that's what we're seeing. And I'll offer one comment and then maybe Bill or Corey want to comment on the group side of this equation and that is that it really is the leisure customers that we're displacing coming through other channels, but they are across all of the businesses, including our regional properties.

Corey Sanders

Analyst

Yes. In the properties, I mean, it's pretty -- they're booking throughout the portfolio. Probably Bellagio's leading, and we're actually seeing some pickup even in our legacy properties. In addition, the other area where we're seeing some pretty nice pickup is Borgata. So we're very pleased with what we're seeing across the portfolio.

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

And as it relates to group, Joe, we've gotten tens of thousands of referrals. And the fascinating thing is we didn't know, and we thought we're pretty good at this, we have been historically, but we didn't know 80% of those referrals. And the vast majority of that business is going midstream. MGM has been so far -- again, it's very early, the biggest beneficiary of bookings into the group segment. And so we have 13 GSOs, they have 1,300 literally. So it's meaningful.

Joseph Greff

Analyst

And then my follow-up question, maybe more geared towards Jonathan. About a month ago, there was news reports of potential efforts to divest certain regional assets? Obviously, if there was something to update us on, you would update us in the press release. But more of my question is about the strategic thinking in terms of how you go about and maybe thinking about pruning the portfolio domestically and what are the certain characteristics or considerations that you think about when thinking about this?

Jonathan Halkyard

Analyst

Sure. I appreciate the question. Clearly, we can't comment on anything like those reports you referenced. But look, we're always looking at the portfolio and to understand how it fits in overall with that strategically. Things that are very important include market positioning in markets that we believe have strong potential for growth. Overall scale because this is a business where most of our properties, including our regional properties are doing north of $200 million annually EBITDAR. So scale matters. And then finally, the way in which all of our properties interact with the whole importation of business into Las Vegas, the linkage with our digital businesses, et cetera. But those are the general lenses through which we look at the portfolio and how they fit in with the strategy.

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

And Joe, I'll only add one other thing. And those properties that demonstrate beyond just organic growth, real growth potential at some point for various -- each property is a little different, so for various reasons. But if they don't demonstrate that, then we have potentially a different view.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Shaun Kelley from Bank of America.

Shaun Kelley

Analyst

I was hoping we can maybe just drill in on digital a little bit. So maybe one kind of specific and then one strategic. The specific question would just be, can you help us think about the loss cadence? I think we've been very clear here that 2024 would be an investment year again. So just help us think about how some of those investments may play throughout. And is there some additional marketing, especially in the second half as you get the product to, I think, where you want in the Angstrom integrations kind of done? And then maybe the strategic question, just to hit it all at once would be a big picture here. Kind of what more would you look for in digital? Are there some things on the technology side? And/or is it more of the market expansion side that you're kind of looking to expand upon digitally?

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

I'll take that first part of that. So when it comes to BetMGM, if you will, I think your comments are pretty relatively spot on, we want to see the product development as it comes out throughout the balance of the year. I think the idea -- we've all talked about the idea of leaning in, if we think where we need to be and want to be by end of the year, particularly through football and beyond. Obviously, for the first quarter, I think digital for all of us was a little rough. Nobody wanted a Super Bowl bet, no one seemed to win a March Madness bet. We're not alone in that. But all that said, I think the plan that we had put forward in discussions to date, you can hold true on. As it relates to longer, there are obviously -- particularly with things like Angstrom and product deliverable, there's a lot to be done that can be done. We're pushing 40-odd states in terms of sports betting. Obviously, iGaming is the real opportunity over time. Arguably, we're all in fix. I think we operate in five and three that really make a difference. And so there's huge upside to that potential. And we continue to try to push for that each and every day. If you think about then the digital side of our other business, meaning the LeoVegas business, it is about the extension of BetMGM's brand and what it could mean in certain established markets. And the focus on places like South America of note and LATAM, we see long-term real growth potential there if we can get ourselves established in the proper regulated markets. And so none of that happens overnight, as you know, but like what we've done in terms of positioning like the products that we have and the foundation we've built, particularly there and some of the things we were bought to add going down the road there to stabilize that business and to own all of that business. And so we're excited by that.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Carlo Santarelli from Deutsche Bank.

Carlo Santarelli

Analyst

Jonathan, just doubling back to some of your comments earlier in the call. Obviously, good ADR growth in the first quarter, rates pacing up for each subsequent quarter grew pacing well. Obviously, as Bill mentioned, we lapped the big headwind with the union contract, the incremental expenses. As you guys think about the rest of the year and all the puts and takes, be it hold comparisons from last year, easy/hard et cetera, events last year, although that should pretty much normalize right now in the book of business that you currently have with kind of some of the known expenses and where they're going, obviously, going up but less heartily as they have been. Do you look at the outlook for the rest of this year and believe there's potential for Vegas Strip EBITDAR to grow as you work through the year?

Jonathan Halkyard

Analyst

Yes, is the simple answer. As we look not only to the leading indicators that we have in our book of business, but also the initiatives that we have underway. And yes, we are confident that we can grow EBITDAR in Las Vegas this year.

Carlo Santarelli

Analyst

And then if I could, just -- I know you guys tightened up some of the slide deck materials and stuff and actually, it's very user friendly. Will the Hong Kong filing provide much of the same material that it provided historically on the MGM China piece of the business for modeling purposes?

Jonathan Halkyard

Analyst

Yes, it will.

Carlo Santarelli

Analyst

And will that be out at some point this evening?

Jonathan Halkyard

Analyst

Yes, in about 30 minutes. I'm told.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from David Katz from Jefferies.

David Katz

Analyst

I wanted to follow on in the digital train of thought. And when we last spoke publicly, there were notions about potential further tuck-ins and some potentially of some meaningful size and continuing to grow that business through some acquisitions. I'm not sure that you touched on that today. And I just wanted to get a sense for what that thinking might be.

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

I didn't on purpose. There are some contemplated tuck-ins coming down the road. But for now, I'm just going to leave it at that. I think I stated on the earlier call, we're anxious to solidify something in sports. We like content businesses. We're anxious to get into the live dealer business. And so none of that's changed. And so I think you'll see us over the course of time here, do things that will further solidify that strategy and get us deeper into those objectives.

David Katz

Analyst

And if I can just follow up on BetMGM, right? There's a lot of your sort of commentary and vision for BetMGM has progressed appropriately, but in a steady way where from afar, it seems like there's a lot of fluidity on your partner side. And my question is, has there been any near-term sort of positive change and sort of how they're approaching the business, executing on the business, et cetera, beyond what you mentioned in some of your prepared remarks?

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

Yes. Look, I think Stella, their new CEO, is the breath of fresh air. She's been extremely transparent, she took Adam Greenblatt, who is the CEO of BetMGM to India to get under the covers, to meet with the design development teams. So she had him speak at a town hall about the importance of BetMGM and all that mattered and so we're excited by that. We think it's movement in the right direction, and it's something that, frankly, heretofore hadn't happened. And so that's all affirmative and positive. Everyone is agreeing to the road map. It's an extensive road map on product development, and it's going to take some time and energy and some investment, particularly in Entain's behalf, and they're fully supportive of that. And so yes, I think things have changed, and I think for the much better.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Brandt Montour from Barclays.

Brandt Montour

Analyst

So first question is on Las Vegas. Maybe you could reconcile or help us reconcile the slot volume trends that you saw in the quarter versus the really strong room rates? And I guess what I'm asking is, is there any sort of behavioral shift for customer trend shift going on under the surface? And what's driving that? Can you talk about the trade-off between those two factors? And how much control you have over that shift?

Corey Sanders

Analyst

Yes, I'll start, and John, if you want to add in. In the quarter, our convention mix was up, but also with the Marriott integration, we definitely strategically looked at reducing our lower end of that casino base. And so we definitely -- we believe that we got the revenue back in the hotel in the convention base for the lost revenue on the slot side there.

Brandt Montour

Analyst

And my second question is on MGM China. And Bill, you touched on the competitive environment there. Your market share in January was well documented to be high, but your average from the mass table market share over the quarter was obviously lower, it implies a lower exit rate. I'm just curious if you want to double back on the January market share and maybe talk about what happened there? And was it -- I guess it wasn't permanent of course, and how much of [ those hold ]? But what can you say about exit rate on market share heading in the second quarter?

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

Let me deflect to Kenny and/or Hubert here. I think most of it was tied to hold in January, but gentlemen, correct me if I'm wrong.

Xiaofeng Feng

Analyst

Yes. You were right. And we have also had some VIP place in January. So that was a major reason that we reached 20% market share in January, but definitely [ all of all ] is in mid-teens as we always said in our previous calls.

Unknown Executive

Analyst

The exit market share rate for March was 15.8%, and we're pretty much stable on that front. And we see a little higher number in April around that. [Technical Difficulty]

Operator

Operator

Thank you for holding everyone. We do have the speakers rejoining the conference. Our next question comes from Chad Beynon from Macquarie.

Chad Beynon

Analyst

I wanted to start with capital allocation. So you purchased another $0.5 billion worth of stock in the quarter. Can you just update us. I know you said there's [ 17 ] left on the plan, but how you're thinking about opportunistic versus programmatic over the next couple of quarters?

Jonathan Halkyard

Analyst

Thanks, Chad. And again, I apologize for the interruption there. Yes, we did $500 million in the first quarter. It will be programmatic for the remainder of the year. That being said, we are looking at some upcoming equity investments later this year and into 2025 in our project in Japan. So that will certainly have some bearing on our share repurchase activity. But we do have, by our calculation about $1.2 billion in excess cash right now. And so at these values, share repurchases will continue to be a meaningful part of our capital allocation program.

Chad Beynon

Analyst

And then on the regional margins, I know there was a lot of weather interruption in January. Can you help us think about maybe the March exit rate, how that looks from a year-over-year perspective? And if you expect that to be stable on a go-forward basis?

Corey Sanders

Analyst

I'll cover it. March was an exceptional month as we saw it play really come back and the exit margin there was at 35%.

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

But I wouldn't suspect that to sustain let's be clear.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Stephen Grambling from Morgan Stanley.

Stephen Grambling

Analyst

I appreciate the longer-term thought process on the mid-teens free cash flow algo. But hoping you could peel back the onion a bit there as we think about tracking this going forward, what would be the underlying growth that you'd think through in Vegas versus the regions versus MGM China, kind of separating that out from BetMGM or new markets. And I think I heard you say through 2028. And I guess is that the right bookend? Or is that just more of a long-term thing?

Jonathan Halkyard

Analyst

Yes. We believe that the domestic operations can continue to grow, both in Las Vegas and the regions in the mid-single digits over that time frame. Now that's organic growth. We do have plans for some additional growth capital investment in Las Vegas mainly, which would increase that growth rate. We think the growth rate is that or higher in our China operations. And then the reason we use the 2028 time frame is in that time frame, while that would capture our expected investments in the New York market, it would not capture the returns on the investment in Japan. But we just think that, right now, a 5-year time frame that's what we use for our internal planning, and that's what we think is reasonable to introduce when we talk about our compound annual growth rate of free cash flow per share.

Stephen Grambling

Analyst

And maybe one other quick follow-up. Just on BetMGM, you've said in the past that it's going to be self-funding from here. Is there anything that you'd be looking for where you'd say this is something that we would want to invest in to contribute to BetMGM or provide them with additional capital for any reason?

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

Yes. Well, there's a couple of potential things. Look, obviously, not that California is going to happen anytime soon. But if California were our other large markets, Texas, et cetera, Georgia, it could probably be another one you could put into this boat. We would be aggressive there, like I think all others would be, and so that would take some capital. And so we would never say never to be clear. And I'm speaking on behalf of MGM in terms of its growth and what it wants to do with that business. And so I think for now, as we think about this year, the plan that we put forward is going to hold. If we get product really right, we see an opportunity to lean in, we will. I don't necessarily know what it will do to the cash. It won't be meaningful. And so only some other or some acquisition comes along that we think BetMGM might be ripe for. But I think the way to think about it is the projection we have out there is probably a pretty safe projection for now.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from John DeCree from CBRE.

John DeCree

Analyst

[ Bob ], maybe to start off on a high level, Bill, you've talked about some of the opportunities that you're watching Thailand, UAE, Texas. And obviously, we know where we're at in New York and Japan right now. So maybe of the other ones, curious if you could give us some additional thoughts or which ones you might be most excited about or I think maybe have the best chance of coming to fruition over the next couple of years?

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

I think at least in terms of the market, I think UAE will come to fruition. I think there's enough indicators there enough work has been done to recognize that either Abu Dhabi of note or one of the other Emirates will come to life. Obviously, [ Winn ] has got a project in the ground and is waiting for national legislation and regulatory framework. So I think that would be the most affirmative. Thailand is interesting. Obviously, it's fully within the government's control and hands at this point. The dialogue to date has been encouraging. We will see the cost to do business there, the margins that could be had would be compelling, very. But again, I don't want to get ahead of that curve. And Texas is -- if there's two or three states left in the U.S. that are meaningful, it's one of them. And so there's four big cities that have been talked about there without giving strategy. Everyone's got positioning and eyes on one of them as do we. And so we continue to follow that. But I wouldn't look for anything immediate there either, frankly, particularly in terms of brick-and-mortar.

John DeCree

Analyst

And maybe a follow-up more on BetMGM and the rest of the portfolio in the omnichannel strategy, it's kind of been a little bit of a focus. I don't know if we've talked too much about it today. So curious if you can share some updates on what you're seeing in terms of kind of crossover play and then maybe in the context of an event like Super Bowl in Las Vegas with a big draw. And now that you've got kind of tentacles around the whole nation through BetMGM, I'm curious how you're seeing those trends play out.

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

I think the notion of omnichannel and the notion of people that play back and forth is about 15% of BetMGM's database give or take. Until we get this single account, single wallet in Nevada, I don't think it's as meaningful as it could and potentially will be. I think that can be very meaningful long term for us because it's a unique position we would have here, particularly over the other leading contenders in this space. And obviously, we see a whole bunch of visitors every year here who have intent. And so for things like Super Bowl, et cetera, it would be important. But we have done a meaningful job and a good job in Super Bowl is the example of inviting, reaching out and making sure that BetMGM's VIP clientele are well catered to, and we hosted several of them during that event in particular, private party tickets to the game, et cetera. And so that activity will continue. It's really when we get single account, single wallet set up, and some more connectivity between MGM Rewards and BetMGM's loyalty system that you really see some traction.

Jonathan Halkyard

Analyst

I think it's also notable to mention that we had about 1 million sign-ups for MGM rewards during the quarter, an all-time record, 600,000 of those came from BetMGM.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Robin Farley from UBS.

Robin Farley

Analyst

Just circling back to your outlook for EBITDA in Vegas growing this year. Can you give us a sense of, I don't know, any kind of quarterly cadence? I assume that Q3 since you'd be comping the cyber hacking last year is maybe would have the easiest comps or would provide maybe most of the growth in that? Is that the right way to think about that? And then I also wanted to -- I was curious about a comment that Bill sort of mentioned here about additional capital investment in Vegas, and I'm wondering if you could give us any further shape of what that might mean?

Jonathan Halkyard

Analyst

Sure. We, right now, I think we'll be able to grow EBITDAR in Las Vegas in each of the next three quarters. And you're correct to note that the third quarter will probably represent greater growth relative to the second and the fourth quarter, primarily because of the incident last year. And then on the capital question.

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

Yes, I'm sorry, Robin. I often never [indiscernible]. I will go through that in some detail next quarter. And I think you'll find it all very interesting. And so if you could give me the privilege of that time, that would be great.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Dan Politzer from Wells Fargo.

Daniel Politzer

Analyst

We've been hearing more about outbound China picking up more recently. To what extent are you seeing that in Las Vegas? And particularly as it relates to [indiscernible], is that part of that growth outlook that you've kind of laid out here for 2024?

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

I make a macro comment. The challenge with China right now, we're about 30% recovered in terms of volume of people to fly in and out of China, if you have to fly over Russia, there's an economic burden if you can't fly over Russia. And so that puts pressure on packaging, tour, leisure, et cetera. And so until that's resolved, i.e., Ukraine, I think that challenge is going to exist. I had the good fortune of being in China about a month ago. I actually had the good fortune of meeting with President Xi and talking about this very subject. He is open to people to people exchange as he referenced it in a meaningful way. But I think we all have that bit of a hurdle. And then Corey, I don't know Chinese New Years was good, but go ahead.

Corey Sanders

Analyst

Chinese New Year's was good. And on the high-end side, we probably saw for the first time since COVID some more million-dollar customers than we've seen in the past, which is positive. We're still only about 55% of where we were in China on the high end from 2019. But even last -- a few weeks ago, we had a group come in for the Masters. They came to Vegas first, and they're going to send them to the [ master ]. So we're seeing some positive results there.

Daniel Politzer

Analyst

And then just pivoting to Macau. I think flow through in the quarter was around 30%. I know you've talked in the past a little bit about margins and expectations there. But is that kind of the right way to think about it going forward as we kind of fill out in terms of the recovery?

Unknown Executive

Analyst

Kenny, why don't you take that?

Xiaofeng Feng

Analyst

Yes. I think like basically, as we always said, in our cause, we are targeting about like a high 20s, around 30% of our EBITDA margin. Based on the current business trends, we feel comfortable with such kind of expectations.

Operator

Operator

And our final question today comes from Barry Jonas from Truist Securities.

Barry Jonas

Analyst

I want to start with Macau. Could you maybe talk a little bit about the specific benefits you're seeing with your smart tables there? Should we expect any impact to market share once competitors get those tables? And I guess, is there any opportunity to use that technology in any other of your markets?

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

Go ahead, Hubert.

Zhi Qi Wang

Analyst

There are multiple aspects of the benefits of smart tables. First of all, you have game security. Of course, it's -- everything is tracked, and it's very difficult to cheat the game. It's almost impossible. And we have cases where people thought that they got away. But as soon as the chips come back, they were caught. And also operating efficiency because far less supervision manning. So these are just from a basic operation standpoint. And then because of the capability of tracking [ all these ] play, so it allows us to have a lot more data, which allows us to do precision marketing based on various customers playing level, we can also give them real-time rewards. And it allows us to develop new games as well. For instance, we already launched insurance bet in this market, and this is impossible to do it manually. And with this technology, we can do it. So -- and it's also very favorably viewed by the regulators in this environment. And so yes, you're right, everybody is trying to implement that. And I think that we have at least several years of lead in the implementation and also take advantage of this technology to execute various programs.

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

Kenny do you want to add anything?

Xiaofeng Feng

Analyst

I just want to add a little bit in like -- actually, we had this technology already in 2016. People are always asking how we are leading this market? Why we are recovering in this way after COVID? I just want to make a little bit of comment on that. What differentiates us in the market is really -- most is a company-wide from the senior management, we possess a deep outstanding of our customers, particularly the premium mass from their culture, their habit, behavior background profile, even their home province and the dialects. China is a vast country with a huge supply of nearly everything like a cutting edge technology like various hospitality products. In the past three years, we didn't waste our time and kept innovating and refreshing our products, our services to meet the ever-changing customer expectations. So we are doing that. We just launched two Casino [ F&B ] outlets in April, which has been well received on the social media and by customers. Basically, all the team members here, we encourage all of you to visit us in person, seeing is believing. So when you come, we can walk you through all the details, initiatives implemented in the past few years that we have done. I think that's my comment about our performance competitiveness.

Barry Jonas

Analyst

And then maybe just as a final question. Bill, when you look at the M&A environment right now, is there anything interesting for you strategically on the buy side within land-based gaming and the regionals or even Vegas?

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

Barry, if I could answer that, I wouldn't. But there's always interesting things. Vegas, we have a full plate as you know. And so -- look, the good news is we're in a position that we get advised news of most things that are happening out there. But no, there's nothing imminent that sits there as gee, wouldn't it be great to have at this point in time. So that's why we're focused on new markets and our digital business. And then ultimately, because this just leads into this, what's left with a lot of free cash flow is continue to buy back shares to get back to shareholders if we just don't think there's anything better to do with the cash. And we've done a lot of that. So I think it speaks to our -- obviously, the comps from [indiscernible] was extremely accretive, and we look for those, but there are not a lot of them out there.

Operator

Operator

And ladies and gentlemen, this will conclude our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference call back over to Bill Hornbuckle for any closing remarks.

William Hornbuckle

Analyst

Thank you, operator, and thank you all for joining us. Sorry for the glitch in the middle of this. We're not sure exactly what happened on either side. As we talked about, obviously, a well-balanced portfolio. We think we've got great pillars in the ground in these four specific locations, Las Vegas, Regional, Macau and Digital. We think if you think about Las Vegas, we have luxury, we have convention, we have value. And we're literally in the epicenter of the entertainment offerings, both current and future. And so we're very excited by that. While we are third in digital, in BetMGM, we are #1 in brick-and-mortar operators who have entered this space. And so this is a highly competitive space. We're excited by where we are and what we're trying to get to. Much work to be done there and frankly, some catch-up to be done there. And we recognize it as well as our partner does. And so we're excited by that. We'll keep you all posted as New York and hopefully, UAE become a reality and same with Thailand and/or Texas. And in the interim, and I just said it earlier, but to the extent we have free growing cash flow, and we do, we'll continue to return it to shareholders when we don't there's anything better to do with the cash. So I thank you all, and have a great evening.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we'll conclude today's presentation. We do thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.